


abrus precatorius

by undodgedbullet



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: DWFicExchange, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 04:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19899490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undodgedbullet/pseuds/undodgedbullet
Summary: The Doctor and Peri have to find a very important item (it can’t betoodifficult to find something even if you don’t know what it is or what it looks like, right?) but they run into a few minor complications.





	abrus precatorius

**Author's Note:**

  * For [6s_and_7s](https://archiveofourown.org/users/6s_and_7s/gifts).



Peri loves seeing the universe. She loves exploring and seeing things she would never have gotten the opportunity to even see at all if it wasn’t for the Doctor and their impossible blue spaceship. She loves it all and can’t dream of ever giving it up, but what she loves just as much as traveling through time and space with her best friend is getting some _sleep_.

She’s gotten fairly used to being in the middle of danger at almost all moments but that doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult, especially when it feels like she and the Doctor have been running for hours and all she wants to do is rest for just a minute or two. She loves being with the Doctor but she might have to talk to them about letting her sleep for as long as she needs to when there isn’t any situations of life or death around her.

On this particular occasion, the two of them find themselves on a planet Peri had never heard of prior to this morning. The Doctor had received a message that the TARDIS picked up and upon reading it, saw that there was someone on a nearby planet who needed an item recovered. It seemed very important, so they immediately woke up Peri and told her the situation, and then they were off on their mission, which is how she finds herself running on a very small amount of sleep while she physically runs alongside the Doctor as they try to find whatever it is they’re looking for before someone else gets to it first. 

It isn’t too bad, she’s certainly experienced more difficult things with the Doctor, but today is just a very tiring day for her.

She tries to hold off from voicing her need to stop or at least slow down for as long as she can but she finds herself growing more and more tired. Thankfully, the Doctor seems to notice something’s up with her before she has to mention anything herself. She’s still trying to adjust to this new version of them but she’s glad her initial impression of them had been wrong. Yeah, they’re _extremely_ different than their previous self and their voice is raised more often than not, but they still can be sweet and considerate, and they’ll always be her best friend no matter what face they have. 

“Is anything the matter, Peri?” the Doctor asks, frowning as they finally, _finally_ , stop running. Peri tries to catch her breath, grateful to be standing still again. She doesn’t know how long they’ve been at it but she feels like her legs are going to fall off. The Doctor is clearly very used to running, they’ve been doing it all their lives, but Peri cannot at all fathom how they aren’t as out of breath as she is, especially in that ridiculous coat of theirs. 

“I’m fine,” she answers with a smile to show them she’s okay. She might be very tired but she isn’t dying or anything like that. “We’ve just been doing a lot of running today, more than we usually do. And since we had to get up early today, it’s just more difficult than it usually is.”

“Well, what do you expect? We have to make sure we get to the item first so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands!” They’re almost shouting but then pause for a moment, their expression softening. “But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to sit down for a bit...”

“Thank you, Doctor,” she says as they sit down on the ground right where they are. Peri follows suit and looks around at the surroundings. They’ve found themselves in an alien forest, which Peri thinks wouldn’t be so bad if she could actually look around and appreciate being here instead of being in a rush to find something the whole time. She’s barely been able to contain anything they’ve seen here so far. At least she’ll probably be able to encounter other alien forests in the future when she’ll be able to take it all in. “So do we actually know what we’re searching for yet?”

“Not yet, but we’ll know it when we see it,” the Doctor answers, repeating themself from the last few times they answered that question. “I can’t expect it to be too far away anymore, we _have_ been looking for it for quite a while.”

“I just don’t know how we’re supposed to find something when we don’t even know what we’re looking for,” Peri says with a sigh, leaning back against the tree that’s behind her. This is a lot harder than she’d thought it’d be. Why do she and the Doctor always have to get stuck in these kind of situations? Why can’t they ever just go on a normal, uneventful vacation? “What do we do if we _can’t_ end up finding it?”

“We will! There’s no use looking at it negatively,” they tell her, and okay fine, they do have a point there, she’s just getting discouraged at how little information they’ve received about this. 

“So we’re trying to look for something that can kill someone but we don’t know how big or small it is or what color it is or... We’re in a forest, it could be _any_ of these plants,” she says, mostly to herself. She has _no_ idea at all how they’re supposed to find this thing. She turns to the Doctor to continue but frowns; they’re suddenly looking very pale. “Doctor? What’s wrong?”

They hold out their hand, which is holding a few smashed red seeds. “It appears these are, perhaps, just a little poisonous.”

“What do you mean?” Peri blinks at them for a moment before their words sink in, her eyes widening. “What did you do, Doctor? You ate one?”

“I did not! I only picked them up,” the Doctor defends themself. They sound as if they’re offended but Peri wouldn’t put it past them to actually have eaten it. She leans closer to look at the seeds in their hand. 

“...These look like _abrus precatorius_ seeds. I don’t know if they’re the same thing because I’m only familiar with plants from Earth but they are very poisonous and they do look very similar,” she explains. The Doctor simply nods, not seeming to be worried in the slightest, and she sighs because she doesn’t think they realize how big this problem is. “Doctor, these are fatal, they can result in death—”

“My dear Peri, I am no stranger to poison. This is nothing I haven’t experienced before,” they say, and Peri knows they’re trying to reassure her but she finds herself getting even more worried because their speaking seems to be slowing down, slurring slightly. They continue before she can say anything, “I just need... to rest...”

And with that, their eyes close and they fall backwards, the tree behind them the only thing stopping them from hitting the ground. Peri holds her breath; she’s seen them die and come back to life as a completely different person once before and she doesn’t know if she can handle that again so soon, if ever. Watching her best friend die is certainly not something she wants to repeat, even if they’ll end up okay. But nothing happens so she moves closer, trying to look for any signs of what might be happening to them. Their chest seems to still be moving, as if they’re still breathing, and Peri realizes they seem to be completely fine. They must not have been lying when they said they only needed to rest.

“At least one of us gets to sleep,” she mumbles, more annoyed than anything else now that she knows they’re going to be okay. She doesn’t have much time to decide what she’s going to do while she waits for them to wake up because she hears a noise from a few feet away that startles her. She doesn’t know how to describe it but it sounds like a voice, and a moment later there’s something hovering in the air right next to her. It looks almost like a fairy, but Peri feels like she’s seen it somewhere before. “...Hello?” she asks cautiously, because for all she knows it could be about to kill her, no matter how cute and tiny it appears to be. 

“Hello,” it replies, slowly, almost as if it’s speaking the language for the first time. It doesn’t do anything for a few seconds and then continues, “You have brought us what we’ve requested.”

“Oh, _you’re_ who sent the Doctor that message?” Peri asks, before she realizes what the fairy-like creature said. “What did I bring you, exactly? You didn’t tell us what it was.”

The creature flies down to the ground, where the seeds the Doctor had been holding fell out of their hand. “This!” it says, and Peri doesn’t know if it can have emotions but it sounds happy. She has to admit, it is pretty adorable. “The forest is too big for us to have found it ourselves and we were scared someone would use it for evil.”

“Well, I’m glad we could help,” Peri says, still slightly confused. She doesn’t know how, but at least she and the Doctor have now done what they were supposed to do. However, that doesn’t help the issue of the Doctor being asleep. “But my friend actually got hurt by it. They said they just needed to rest and they’ll be fine but I don’t know when they’re going to wake up.”

The fairy shakes its head. “Your friend won’t wake up on their own. These seeds are more lethal than they are on any other planet; once they put you to sleep, you’ll stay asleep.”

“Oh.” She doesn’t quite know what to do now. She’s been worried before about what might happen if the Doctor ever got into trouble that they couldn’t get out of, but it’s never actually been a reality. She doesn’t know what she’d do if she ever got stuck without them. “Is there _nothing_ we can do? I really need them alive, they can’t stay asleep forever.”

“There is one thing we can try...” the fairy tells her, and Peri immediately perks up. She’s willing to try anything that will save the Doctor. 

“Whatever it is, I’ll do it,” she says immediately. Not only is the Doctor her very best friend but they’re also her lifeline; without them, she’ll never be able to even get out of here. She’s suddenly filled with even more worry. What is she going to do if they _don’t_ wake up? 

“It hasn’t been done yet because no one’s been poisoned by one of these seeds before so I can’t promise that it’ll work, but we can give it a try,” the fairy says. 

Not even a few seconds later, everything seems to shift. Peri opens her eyes to find that she, the fairy, and the Doctor have apparently been transported to somewhere else in the forest. “What are we doing here?”

“Here, we can find the cure. In the lake.” The fairy gestures to the stream they are now next to. “Put your friend’s hand in the water and I will do the rest.”

Peri does so, watching as the creature lights up and flies closer to the Doctor. It stops right by their hand and does something that Peri can’t see, before moving away.

“Now what?” she asks. She really, _really_ hopes this works. 

“Now we wait,” the fairy answers. They don’t have to wait for long because the Doctor is opening their eyes again within a matter of minutes. 

“Doctor!” Peri says, immediately dashing to the Doctor’s side. She pulls them into a hug which they gladly return, despite their confusion. She’s never been more thankful that they’re alive. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, of course I am,” they answer, as if it’s absurd that she’d ever think otherwise. “...What happened?”

“Well, the seeds that poisoned you ended up being what we were looking for the entire time,” she explains. They look surprised but nod; it’s actually all worked out very conveniently. “Anyway, we saved you and all is well.”

“You saved me?” the Doctor asks. Peri nods and they lean up to kiss her on the forehead, smiling at her. “Thank you.”

“It was all our new friend here!” She gestures to the fairy hovering next to them.

“Oh! Well, thank you too! What’s your name?” they ask, turning to the creature. 

“Impati,” it answers, and Peri gasps. 

“ _That’s_ why I recognized you!” she says. “There’s a plant on Earth called _impatiens bequaertii_ and they look very much like you do.”

“There are many other versions of my species on other planets,” it confirms. 

“Well, I’m glad we could help you find what you needed. And thank you again for helping us.” The Doctor turns to Peri. “Now, we have to figure out which way to the TARDIS...”

“I can help you with that,” the fairy suggests. “I’ll get you to your ship and you can safely leave the planet.”

“Thank you!” the Doctor says again. “It was lovely seeing you.”

Everything around them shifts again but this time, Peri and the Doctor find themselves right by the TARDIS. The Doctor takes the key out of their pocket and unlocks the door, allowing Peri in first. 

“Well, that was a very eventful day,” Peri comments with a laugh. “Don’t ever scare me like that again, Doctor. You could’ve been gone forever if the creature wasn’t able to save you.”

“As you can see, my dear Peri, I am completely fine!” They do a twirl to further prove their point. “I wouldn’t ever leave you alone and stranded on an unknown planet.”

“I know you wouldn’t _try_ to, but you know there’s some things that even you can’t control.” She knows they try their hardest to make sure she doesn’t get hurt or anything else equally as bad, but that doesn’t mean it can’t ever end up happening. 

The Doctor doesn’t reply at first, clearly not liking what she’s saying but also knowing she isn’t wrong. “Why don’t I have the TARDIS make us some tea? Then we can relax.”

She nods, letting the subject drop because she _does_ need to relax. The Doctor leaves the console room and comes back almost immediately with two mugs in their hands. They hand one to her, who takes it with a smile.

“Thank you, Doctor,” she says, trying to stifle a yawn. 

“I think you should get some sleep right after this.” They leave no room for argument in their voice, but after everything that’s happened today, Peri is so exhausted she couldn’t argue with them even if she wanted to. She quickly finishes her tea and they smile at her as she moves next to them to kiss their cheek. “Goodnight, Peri.”

“Goodnight, Doctor,” she says. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

They laugh. “I’m glad, too.”


End file.
